The name Cliffy B doesn't exactly conjure reverent images for PlayStation diehards. After all, the guy is responsible for creating one of Microsoft's biggest franchises--Gears of War--and was an influential figurehead at Epic Games, a studio whose Unreal Engine 3 was notoriously lackluster during PS3's early years.

But now that Cliff Bleszinski has left Epic Games in pursuit of other career avenues, he's free to speak candidly about the industry he's grown alongside for 20 years. In an interview with Engadget, he had some choice words to share about Microsoft's treatment of indie developers and how Sony is doing it better. "I have a very good relationship with Microsoft, but [there are] a lot of TCRs you'd have to go through," he explained. ". . . all the stuff you'd have to go through to get your game on Xbox Live Arcade, or even issue updates on; it was a nightmare."

I am truly happy that Sony has taken a big leap this year with their next gen system and made life easier for the developers to create games and all. They've not only made the developers happy, but us too. Thank you Sony for all the changes you guys have brought especially the new features. Hope that made sense haha :)

I think it's great that this time around, Sony is getting good hype before launch. Remember PS3 and the days of "doom" articles on every gaming website. Really glad Sony is getting the hype and coverage they deserve.

They made some bad choices here and there but they never gave up on PS3 and the gamers, that says alot from a company that took losses for every console sold. It means they don't necessarily think "money money money", they think strategically and they follow the tradition of having a great customer relationship.

Those lazy developers were not welcome on PlayStation 3. But now the PS4 is more like 360 everyone is welcome and Sony deserves all credit for reaching out. The cell was never a problem, it was just that these lazy developers did not know how to code. Now Sony fells sorry for them and decided to dumb down the PS4 to their level. I hope their appreciate how much Sony is doing for them to get their crap games on the great PlayStation brand.

Cliffy's been kissing a lot of butt lately. Yeah, what he is saying about Sony is true, but everyone already knows that Indies have been happy with Sony already. It's been 3 years of Sony working with indies, and Cliffy only NOW notices?

So what, he gets brownie points for taking 3 years to finally acknowledge the obvious?

He must still be looking for work. He's been kissing EA's (even claiming microtransactions and day 1 dlc is okay -_-), Nintendo's, Kojima's, and now Sony's butt. Am I missing any other companies?

Expect to see more of these. MS have been very good this gen in opening doors for indies through their XNA tools, but as has been accounted by a number of devs, the experience after these games have been made i.e. promotion, support, updates etc. can be terrible and off-putting. It's why you've seen many developers of MS-exclusive indie games come over to "the darkside" for reasons more than developers wanting to make more money.

Sony, meanwhile, have actually supported small indie ventures and make deals that work out best for both parties i.e. The Pub Fund that exchanges Sony's budget and publicity for a small period of exclusivity for PlayStation.

Also, note that there has been a stir in the development circle that Microsoft's direction is different to Sony's - and we all know Sony's direction with PS4, Vita, PS3 and mobile. http://www.destructoid.com/...

I can't wait til the 21st to see what MS has in store for indie devs. I know it was a nightmare before but I'm on a wait and see for the time being. As for PS4, kudos for Sony embracing all developers. Not to mention them funding indie games for PSN+ which should have some awesome titles.

Well if it's true that Windows 8 is going to be part of the next Xbox, Indie's might be able to self publish for the small fee that is required on Windows 8 PC, which is like $60 I believe? Anyway, if rumors are anything to go on, Microsoft will have a more open service that is more inviting to indie's, Free To Play and hopefully MMORPG's, that was one thing that was missing in my opinion.

Hopefully we'll see some of those things come together on all of the next gen platforms.

@TheOneEyedHound Actually Jagex said they'd be open to bringing Runescape to consoles, but they want cross play between Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, which will probably never happen.

I more meant games like the new rumored MMORPG from Lionhead Studios, which could be a Fable MMO, or the game Class4 by Undead Labs that was supposed to be one of the first MMORPG's on the Xbox 360, but looks like it was switched to the next Xbox.

Would be nice to get like the Skyrim MMO on next gen consoles as well.

Notch refuses to certify MineCraft for Windows 8 for a reason. The philosophy regarding indie and MS interaction is already established. More and more indies are showing up on PSN and they're great games. Microsoft HAD the opportunity with the Windows 8 certification process, to tweak the XBLA process as well, and chose not to. We'll know more on the 21st, but I don't see them making it any easier, consider how they've treated indies thus far.

Imagine for a moment, that MS and Sony approves of console cross play. The fanboy wars would be taken to another level. IN the game. I want to see this happen at some point. It would be so epic, the heads on mt. rushmore would cry.

LOL. Wow. You know that MS didn't design the x86 architecture, or even really have a hand in creating it? It was developed by Intel. The original windows 1.0 was designed to run on the 8086(the first x86 chip) and 8088 CPU. In fact the x86 project started in 1976...a full 6 years before MS released the first windows. MS did support the chips through MS-DOS however, but DOS had several competitors back in the day. X86 PC's are by far the most commonly used CPU today due to their compatibility. So yeah, Sony copied.

I never said that Intel made their stuff, just designed it. Other companies such as AMD also had a hand in getting x86 architecture to where it is today. I'm sure none of those companies have their cheap labor designing the actual chip, so not sure why you brought that up.

Also, pretty sure the 360's Xenon processor is a PowerPC RISC CPU. I've yet to see anyone proclaim that MS copied a couple prior gens worth of consoles for them doing so.

If your speaking of the original xbox then MS just used off the shelf components, slightly modified, to make a psuedo-PC to work with. Sony, and if rumors are to be believed, MS, are not going with this approach next gen. They are using highly customized x86 chips which are not currently available on the open market, hence, not "off the shelf". It's not specifically designed for consoles for mass market however.

The reason I get "defensive" is because no one here is copying design philosophies. These types of architectures are bigger than consoles, and for the most part it is working off current trends in the market, which is more cores within an APU and a high speed bus to support it. Something that's been around in mobile for years. There are just certain trends that manufacturers have to adhere to to maintain a level playing field based on what they want to spend vs make. This has been true since the very first console. On a side note, the 360S did integrate the CPU and GPU, along with the memory if memory serves.

It's also worth pointing out, that game developers are pretty well versed in the use of RISC based architectures, as it's been around in consoles for quite some time. It was the unique structure of the Cell which gave a lot of them pause. RISC does have several benefits over CISC for gaming, but I won't spell them out here. However, given current tech, x86 isn't a slouch.

Good for gamers? Probably, as it means less time for devs in optimizing games for a particular system, which in theory can lead to more uniformity among multi-plats. Whether that happens in practice remains to be seen.

How come witwicky343's comment was marked for trolling? When Cliffy makes an anti-Sony statement, whether factual or not, about 50% of the comments absolutely rip it into him a la witwicky... often worse, and there's no repercussions in those cases.

I hope so too bro, he is a really smart and funny dude. Seems he speaks more of his mind since leaving EPIC making him more of a gamer like us. All these signs point to him making himself a better person and developer.

I can't wait to see what he comes up with next or if he helps make a Resident Evil REBOOT..lol Call him Capcom!